“Just long enough for the bread to heat. Make yourself at home,” he said, tipping his head toward the adjoining breakfast nook, “and I’ll bring your plate to you.”
She slid into the booth seat around the café table and rubbed the muscles in her neck. As wiped as she was, the day wasn’t over yet. She wasn’t about to let Reid delve into her father’s computer files without her. She wanted to be on the front lines of his investigation, working beside him, an equal partner in bringing her father, the shooter and anyone else involved in these crimes to justice. Was Stanley involved? Surely he was complicit. He had to know something was dirty about his employer after all these years.
Reid carried two plates over and set one with a large steak, baked potato, salad and bread in front of her. The blend of aromas made her mouth water, but she paused long enough to bow her head and say a silent grace...adding thanks that she, Reid and Nicholas had come through the day alive and relatively unscathed. And give me strength for the days ahead.
“Amen,” she whispered and raised her gaze to find Reid watching her. He made no comment about her prayer, but hesitated a moment before he dived into his garlic bread.
Her faith was one of the few things she had learned from her mother, had shared with Andrew and was trying to teach Nicholas, and she knew it would be a source of strength to her in the uncertain days ahead.
“This looks good,” she said as she cut a big bite of steak and poked it in her mouth. The first thing she noticed was the abundance of seasoning. Correction...overabundance of seasoning. She set down her fork, trying hard to swallow without gagging.
“Hope so. I could eat a horse.” Reid forked a bite of steak into his mouth and grunted. Coughed. Spit his bite into his napkin. “Jeez!”
“What did you put on the meat?”
He sipped his water and shrugged. “A little of everything. I wasn’t sure what to use so...”
She grinned and used her fork to scrape some of the seasoning from her steak. “With cooking, a lot of times, less is more.”
“How would I know? We have a full-time cook at the ranch.”
“You didn’t pay attention when Andrew was grilling at our cookouts?”
He waved a hand at his plate and started laughing. “Obviously not.”
Fatigue and the ridiculousness of the situation ganged up on her. She joined his chuckle but soon her laughter blossomed to peals of overtired mirth. They laughed until they were both wiping their eyes. The laughter felt good, even though she knew it was completely incongruous to her situation. Her stress eased, and she felt a tenuous renewed connection with Reid.
As her giggles subsided, she raked her damp hair back from her face and sighed. “Lordy, what a day.”
“You can say that again.” Shoving aside his steak, he sliced open his potato, and they ate in companionable silence for the next several minutes. When he’d cleared his plate, he scooted from the booth and carried his plate to the sink. “Leave the dishes until morning. Let’s get a peek at those files.”
In an instant, the tension that had fled briefly as they ate returned in spades. She followed him back to the den where he opened the cabinet doors to the vast collection of electronics including a high-end laptop computer. He carried the computer to a walnut desk in the corner of the living room.
She wanted to know what secrets her father had been keeping, what lies he’d told her and how deeply he’d sunk himself into criminal activity, but her heart gave a sore drub of dread as she dragged a chair in to sit next to Reid as he worked.
While the laptop booted up, he gave her a searching look. “You don’t have to stay up. I know you’re tired.”
She scoffed. “As exhausted as I am, I may never sleep again. Getting shot at was...terrifying. I’m afraid to close my eyes. I keep seeing it replay.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I know. I wish I could do something to help. Give it time. The images may never disappear, but they’ll fade.”
She gave him a weak, weary smile of gratitude. “Where did you tell your family you’d be tonight?”
“I didn’t, really. I gave Zane a quick rundown of what was happening, just in case.”
Just in case?
He must have misread her worried expression, because he hurried to add, “I didn’t give him details, and he doesn’t know where this house is. I trust him. But someone needed to have an idea what was happening.”
“In case we’re killed the next time the shooter comes gunning for us?” She hated the quaver in her voice.
Reid leaned toward her, pulling her against him. He stroked her back and massaged the base of her neck with strong fingers. “You’re safe now, Pen. I’m going to protect you and Nicholas. I swear.”
The laptop chimed, indicating it had finished start-up, and Reid backed away from their hug. She immediately missed the comfort and security of his arms around her. After a day as unsettling and topsy-turvy as she’d had, the thought of curling up on the sofa with Reid’s body wrapped around her in a protective and reassuring embrace appealed more than it had any right.
Reid plugged the thumb drive into the side USB port and loaded the list of files. She canted closer to read the list on the screen.
“Two thousand twenty-three files?” Her heart dropped when she saw how much material they had to weed through.
“And that’s just what I could get downloaded before the butler showed up and we had to cut and run.”
“It’ll take forever to go through all those files.”
“Welcome to the scintillating world of a police detective. A lot of what I did on the job was tedious paperwork and combing through archived documents or computer files.” He clicked on a folder and a whole new list of files appeared.